DELE ALLI would be crushed by the same English attitudes that drove David Bentley out of the game - if the Tottenham star was not already showing signs that he can beat the system.

David Bentley on Tottenham, Dele Alli, Mauricio Pochettino, Arsene Wenger, quitting and more

Nearly three years have passed since Bentley, “the new David Beckham”, hung up his boots at just 28.

Nowadays, restauranteur Bentley is as likely to be kicking the ball about with his three children in the idyllic garden of his villa tomorrow lunchtime as tuning in to watch what most fans feel is an unmissable north London derby featuring two clubs he represented; Tottenham, second in the Premier League, three points behind leaders Leicester; and Arsenal, third, six points off the top having lost their last two games.

If Bentley does choose to flick on the screen at the back of his popular La Sala restaurant to tune in to events at White Hart Lane, it will mainly be to follow the one player in the Premier League right now he feels really is worth watching.

Alli is somebody Bentley has followed since he first broke through into professional football as a 16-year-old at MK Dons. They share the same agent, Rob Segal, the same impishness and an identical desire to entertain.

Unlike Bentley, though, who claims to have had “a good career not a great one”, Alli could go all the way because of a fundamental difference between the two.

Deli Alli's petulant kick against Fiorentina

Thu, February 18, 2016

Should Dele Alli have been sent off for this kick on Fiorentina's Nenad Tomovic in Tottenham's Europa League Round of 32 tie?

Was Dele Alli lucky not to be sent off for a petulant kick against Fiorentina last night?

The Spurs player, though only 19, not only “gets” the system but Bentley believes he is clever enough even to play it at its own game.

A close friend of MK Dons manager Karl Robinson, Bentley explains: “While Dele has been impressive so far, the best thing is that I know he has a lot more in him. He is showing so much maturity by not playing at his full level.

“Sadly, that is what you have got to do as a kid. You have to be humble and all this b******s. That, unfortunately, is the English way.

“I got fed up with all that, but he’s actually doing it. He’s managing his ability. That is a good to see because he has a lot more in the locker. And good for him.

“He will be one of the very best, provided he is allowed to develop as he wants.”

“He was a brilliant manager, the best,” Bentley says, but at the same time one who he also feels perhaps did not understand young English talent. By contrast Alli’s manager Mauricio Pochettino seems to get it instinctively.

“Dele is being loved and being backed,” said Bentley. “Pochettino is brilliant and Dele would do well to stay put with him.”

Generally, Bentley felt his own managers focused too much on stats and not enough on the more intangible qualities he brought to the team.

“I fell in love with the game watching Paul Gascoigne and Eric Cantona,” said Bentley. “I would turn the TV on to watch Sheffield Wednesday just because Benito Carbone was playing, or Derby to watch Georgi Kinkladze. They had personality and that is what I wanted to emulate.

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David Bentley pictured at his La Sala restaurant

“But when I tried to, it seemed like I was just p***ing about. That wasn’t the case – I was really serious about my football. Just nobody really appreciated it and I could not be bothered to buy into that military-style of football.”

At his best, Bentley scored a hat-trick for Blackburn against Manchester United, scored the first goal at the new Wembley and sparked England manager Steve McClaren to make that comparison with Beckham.

And in the week of the north London derby, who could forget that dipping 43-yard volley for Spurs in 2008 against his former club? However, Bentley failed to cement himself in the Tottenham side and shortly after new manager Harry Redknapp failed to see the funny side of a TV interview ice-bucket prank, Bentley was farmed out from club to club: Birmingham, West Ham, FC Rostov in Russia and finally back to Blackburn.

This nomadic lifestyle struck a chord that finally resonates as we start to explore the deeper reasons for him turning his back on the game.

“I travelled around a little bit when I was a kid,” he recalled. “My dad was in the RAF so I spent six or seven years following him around to different places and different countries.

“Maybe my own upbringing affected my decision to quit football. I did not want to be heading all over the place playing football, especially with my eldest daughter just starting school. I wanted a different life for them.”

Certainly there are no regrets about quitting. The money he made from football was ploughed into a bar in the Costa del Sol which has since grown into a chain of restaurants – co-owned by a group of friends – that stretches across the south of Spain, Gibraltar and, since 2014, Essex. People called him a plonker for quitting, but life has worked out just cushty for football’s Del Boy.

“I tell you what,” says Bentley laughing. “One of our maintenance and delivery vans has actually got ‘Puerto Banus, Gibraltar and Chigwell’ written on the side. Maybe we’ll have to paint it yellow!”